Are you struggling to compare & choose between local domestic cleaning services?

Don’t worry you are not alone!

In fact it is not at all surprising that so many people struggle with this, as in reality there are 3 very different types of cleaning services available in the Wrexham area but no one would ever guess that to be the case, how many websites & online advertisements for local cleaning services have you already taken a look at, don't you think they all appear to be advertising very similar cleaning services.

So let’s look into this a little deeper, the best starting point is probably with the costs, you can expect to be quoted hourly rates ranging from anything from £8 per hour up to £28 per hour.

And what about those companies that simply refuse to quote on an hourly rate basis? Well because we have

quoted on a like for like basis against them many times over the years, we know that they tend to come in with the equivalent of hourly rates ranging from £22 per hour to £28 per hour.

In general terms this extensive price range breaks down as:

1. With the £8 to £14 per hour price range, with the lower rates you are more than likely to be booking with a Self Employed Individual that works by themselves for themselves, to their own cleaning standards, & with the upper rates you are likely to be booking exactly the same, but through a Cleaning Agency hence the extra to cover their management fee.

2. With the £15 to £21 per hour price range, you are likely to be booking with a Private Cleaning Business, that has recruited, vetted and trained their employees to provide cleaning services to 'Cleaning Industry Standards'.

4. With the £22 to £28 per hour price range, you are likely to be booking with a Cleaning Franchise Business Owner that has bought the license to trade as that brand in their local area, they will have recruited, vetted and trained their employees to provide cleaning services in line with their franchise guidelines.

So which type is right for you?

Well it now comes down to a simple process of elimination, just answer the following questions honestly about what you expect to get for your money, and what you are comfortable with for your home!

Question 1. About the people that will come into your home to clean, would you expect them to have been exhaustively vetted & interviewed, plus comprehensively trained and tested?

Question 2. Would you expect your cleaning service to take the full responsibility for all the additional employment costs, such as holiday pay & holiday cover, sickness pay & sickness cover, employment tax and NI contributions, pension, and of course full employer liability insurance etc ?

Question 3. Would you want to your cleaning service to provide all of the cleaning cloths, products and equipment, so that all of the Health & Safety issues, including the PAT testing of the vacuums etc. are all taken care of for you?

Question 4. Would you expect the supervision, management, and quality of the cleaning of your home to be the cleaning service’s responsibility?

If you have answered YES to any of these 4 questions, you should avoid the £8 to £14 per hour type of services.

Next the £22 to £28 per hour type of cleaning service.

Question 5. How do you feel about paying up to 40% extra towards additional cost elements?

A Cleaning Franchise Business Owner has no choice but to add on additional costs to cover their contracted percentage of franchise fees, plus of course some also have the cost of a fleet of company cars to cover, and then there's the other compulsory extra of 20% for VAT.

Question 6. Are you comfortable with a contractual obligation?

With many Cleaning Franchises you will be expected to sign up to a contracted period of service of up to 3 months or more.

If you are not comfortable with either of these 2 points avoid the £22 to £28 per hour type of services.

So what about the £15 to £21 per hour type of cleaning service.

Whilst this type of cleaning service may fall into the middle range in price, it does not by any means fall into a 2nd Class category, you will still need to shop around though, look for an established Private Cleaning Company with plenty of experience behind them, and a proven, tried and tested business model. Then to be sure that you are dealing with a professionally run cleaning business ask them all of the following 9 questions!

As this is the very least that you can expect to get for your money!

1. Have the people that will come into my home to clean, been thoroughly vetted & interviewed, and how long does it take to train your employees?

(The answer should be a minimum of at least 6 weeks but is usually more like 8 to 10 weeks)

2. Do you to take the full responsibility for all employment costs, including holiday pay & holiday cover, sickness pay & sickness cover, employment tax and NI contributions, pension, and full employer liability insurance etc ? ( The answer should be a straight forward YES )

3. Do you provide the cleaning cloths and products etc, and what about the equipment are the vacuums PAT Tested ? ( The answer should be a straight forward YES )

4. How do you manage the risk of cross contamination from your cleaning cloths etc.? ( If they are working to cleaning industry standards they should be using a colour coded system to manage this H & S Risk )

5. Do you have references &/or testimonials from people who have used your cleaning services?

( They should be able to provide you with a minimum of at least 30 customer reviews )

6. Do you have a pre-set schedule of cleaning, or are you flexible to do what I need done?

( The answer should be "we can work either way, whatever you prefer" )

7. Do you have written terms & conditions of service?

( A professionally run cleaning business would not work without issuing a set of T & C s )

8. Do you have contracted period of service ?

( With a privately run cleaning business you should not expect anything more than a week or two )

9. And finally are you VAT registered?

( Ideally you are looking for an answer of NO, as this means that although the business is well established, it's not too big to really care about each individal customer, but if the answer is YES check whether the extra 20% for VAT is already included in the price they have quoted you )

The aim of this article is to help local people be more informed & confident in comparing & choosing between the local domestic cleaning services in the Wrexham area, we hope it has helped you!